Rev Robert Barthram's Monthly Letter

Pentecost 2015

By Rev Robert Barthram, Jul 21 2015 08:38AM

Dear Friends,

In my letter last month I welcomed you on board a journey through the month of May. When you read this hopefully you will have arrived safely at the end of your journey but I write this with several of the stops on the journey to come. One of them is the festival of Pentecost, the third great festival of the Christian Year.

There is no real acknowledgement of this festival in the wider world and so there is the danger that for us too it can be seen as, ‘just another Sunday’ but it is certainly not. At Pentecost we celebrate the gift of God the Spirit just as at Christmas we celebrate the gift of God the Son. With the work of the Son complete there is the promise of, ‘power from on high’ (Luke 24:49), the promise is kept and that power came and remains with his followers. The Church and its mission began and because of that we are part of a worldwide Church all these years later. Truly a cause for celebration.

On the St. Andrew’s building you can still see the banner that was put up when we welcomed the Olympic Torch to Reading. It still has relevance as a welcoming statement. It reminds me of some words from a book written by Bernard Thorogood a former General Secretary of the United Reformed Church and I share them with you as you journey through the Pentecost season.